Not the usual cycling question...

[mygsris2slo4u]

4 or 5 weeks ago I set up my 90 again with acid washed dry rock. I also tossed in a small 5 lb piece of live rock that I had bought for my pico which did not fit. I also dumped in a bottle of "shelf stable" bio sporia. To get a cycle started dropped in a few cubes of mysis and ghost fed some flake food in the days following, but never saw any spike in ammonia (test strips and seachem alert). So, I then added a raw shrimp which has been decaying in the tank for 10 days or so at this point. I still have no noticeable spike in ammonia and the test strips show no nitrite (4ppm Nitrate according to salifert test). What are your thoughts regarding whether or not this tank has cycled?

I have a api saltwater kit en route to get a more accurate test of ammonia and nitrite. If this kit shows no ammonia and nitrite I'm going to ghost feed for another week or two and then move the fish from qt into this tank. I've never seen a cycle like this before.

[bertoni]

I think the tank has enough ammonia-processing bacteria, so I would remove the raw shrimp. I've set up several tanks that never showed any ammonia.

[mygsris2slo4u]

Thanks for the reply. I've never seen a cycle act in this manner which had me second guessing. I will wait till my test kit comes in to see what nitrites look like.

[Notquiterite]

Does your strip test for nitrates as well? I used commercial ammonia to cycle my tank a while back and it worked great and fast as I too, was not getting any ammonia reading from the decaying shrimp or other food.

[SloppyJ]

Impossible to say without a nitrite reading. I will add my experience though. I dosed my tank with ammonia. I couldn't get it high enough (2ppm). I doesed my calculated amount and it didn't get that high. I had a bottle of biospira as well. I dumped the ammonia in at 9pm. I let it run through the next day and I was at .5ppm of ammonia.

That night, after the .5ppm ammonia test, I dumped in the biospira. I tested the next day and I had 0ppm NH3, 10ppm NO2 and 10ppm NO3. Right now, a week later, my tank has minimal nitrites and sky high nitrates.

I believe that the biospira is more concentrated on the nitrosomonas end of the nitrification scale which turn ammonia into nitrite. I think you might have missed the ammonia spike because of the biospira.

Even with that said, I don't feel that my tank is cycled. It will run for another month without anything in it.

[mygsris2slo4u]

Impossible to say without a nitrite reading. I will add my experience though. I dosed my tank with ammonia. I couldn't get it high enough (2ppm). I doesed my calculated amount and it didn't get that high. I had a bottle of biospira as well. I dumped the ammonia in at 9pm. I let it run through the next day and I was at .5ppm of ammonia.

That night, after the .5ppm ammonia test, I dumped in the biospira. I tested the next day and I had 0ppm NH3, 10ppm NO2 and 10ppm NO3. Right now, a week later, my tank has minimal nitrites and sky high nitrates.

I believe that the biospira is more concentrated on the nitrosomonas end of the nitrification scale which turn ammonia into nitrite. I think you might have missed the ammonia spike because of the biospira.

Even with that said, I don't feel that my tank is cycled. It will run for another month without anything in it.

I'm planning to do the same. We will see what the new test kit shows.

Does your strip test for nitrates as well? I used commercial ammonia to cycle my tank a while back and it worked great and fast as I too, was not getting any ammonia reading from the decaying shrimp or other food.

I have a salifert nitrate test and it is showing 4ppm of nitrate which is not showing on the test strip. That is why I ordered new test kits to see where the ammonia and nitrite are at.